In a Two Horse Open Sleigh!

My grandparents, my Dad's parents, were ranchers.  They had a house in town and a large ranch a ways out of town. Over the years, they raised cattle (both dairy and beef) and sheep.  The house in town was on several acres so they sometimes had sheep there, as well as hogs. The sheep that came to the house in town were usually bum lambs that had to be hand fed. Back before my grandfather bought his first tractor, horses provided the power to pull the wagons and other equipment as needed. Once he bought his tractors, he kept the horses for several years. When I was a child they would sometimes hook up the horses to the wagons and take whoever was there visiting for wagon rides around the countryside.  It was particularly fun in the winter.  He had a wagon on sleigh runners; we would throw a bunch of haybales on to sit on, bring a bunch of warm blankets to wrap up in and stay warm, and then ride around the backroads all over the county.  It was a lot of fun, fond memories.

A while back, Brombeere learned of an outfit, a farm here in the state, that ran a side business of providing sleigh rides to whoever wanted to go. So we made a reservation and went with Himbeere and his friend.  It was a lot of fun.

We got there a little early.  When that happens they invite you to visit the barn and see the horses that are  not currently out pulling wagons. So we did.

After a while the wagon we were going to ride on got back from the ride that had gone out earlier in the day.  They typically had two wagons out at any given time, depending on how many groups were coming on that day.  So we got to see the horses and wagon we would be riding on.  

The wagon unloaded and then pulled into the barn so they could care for the horses, give them a rest and drink, check them out and make sure they were okay to go out again on the next ride.  That also gave them a chance to check the wagon and make sure it was also okay to go out again.  Then, after several minutes, they let everyone get in the wagon and they headed out.  

After a short trip across an open field, we entered some woods, where the rest of the ride would be.  The lady driving the wagon was very friendly, very helpful; she even offered to take a few pictures so we could have our whole group in a couple of shots.

They had a system of trails all around through the woods. It was very quiet, a very peaceful ride.

The wagon was quite comfortable, considering it was a wagon.

We had come prepared with warm coats and blankets for the ladies.  It was actually a very nice day for the ride.  In the woods there was pretty much no wind and it wasn't a really cold day anyway.  We had actually been a little worried that there might not be enough snow a few days leading up to the ride.

But it had snowed there at the farm a couple of days before we were there and the trails were in great shape.  It was a good ride.

Part way through the ride we stopped at a fire pit they had out in the trees.  If we'd wanted to, we could have brought some food and had a cook out over the fire.  

But we still stopped at the fire pit and just sat and visited there in the woods. 

Even though we had elected not to cook anything, the lady still built up the fire.  They kept it going all day so that any group that wanted to could enjoy it.  We had decided before hand to go into town after the ride and eat at one of the restaurants in town.

It also gave the horses the opportunity to take a rest.

They had a nice set up there in the woods.  We decided this would be a fun thing to do again and, next time we would definitely bring some lunch to cook over the fire, even if it was just marshmallows to roast.  It would be fun.  Especially since they provide the fire and all the stuff needed to cook and all we would need to bring was the food.

It was a very fun way to spend the afternoon.  The whole ride, including the stop at the fire pit, took almost an hour.  Nobody froze, nobody fell out of the wagon, and nobody got bit by a horse.  It was a very fun time.  We left definitely wanting to do it again.

An Afternoon Drive

It had been a while so we decided the other day we wanted to go for a drive.  I keep a list of interesting places around the state that I would some day like to visit. It's the closest thing I have to a "bucket list", I suppose.  Anyway, Brombeere said she didn't have any place in particular in mind, she just wanted to go for an afternoon drive so I picked a place and that's where we went. Actually, where I began, when picking the place, was picking one of the many "rustic roads" our state has designated.  I wanted to go to a new one, one I hadn't been to before.  And I wanted it to be along one.  To earn the designation Rustic Road, a road has to be at least two miles long, among other things.  I wanted one longer than that so I looked at the map and picked one that was long.  It just happened to also be in a state park I have had on my list for a while; two birds with one stone!

The road began at the top of the Black River State Forest and is 12 miles long.

This winter in our state there's been a lot of snow.  Unfortunately, it's usually been followed each time by warmer weather.  So we'd get a really nice, heavy snow fall.  It would stay cold for a week or so and then it would get warm, which would cause a lot of the snow to melt.

As we drove along the road you could see the effects of the heavy snow.  Not only would there be a lot, but it would also be heavier than normal, a little wetter than normal.  That makes good packing snow,  good snowman snow, good snowball snow.  But it can also be hard on trees and shrubbery.

So we saw lots of bent-over trees, lots of broken limbs.  A hard winter, some might call it.

But it was still a pretty drive.  It was an overcast day, it might have been prettier if the sun had been out, shinning bright in the winter sky.  But it was still a very pretty drive.  This forest was in what is referred to as the "driftless area", the leading edge of the ancient glacier that used to cover most of the state.  So in front of the glacier a lot of dirt got pushed around, resulting in today's hills found all over in the southwest part of the state.  It's a very pretty area.

We did find one parking area that had been plowed out, the parking area for the trailhead of a number of trails through the forest, used for hiking and cross country skiing in the winter.  So we stopped to look around.

We might have tried a picnic, there were, after all, some picnic tables, and we found a nearby water pump.

But the snow was a bit deep and the pump turned off, if not frozen.  So we decided to pass on the picnic.

Some of the small stream and ponds were frozen over.  Others were not; very picturesque.

Eventually we came to the end of the officially designated rustic road so we turned around and drove back along the road and through the forest.  It was a very nice drive, a good time together. The whole time we had only seen four or five other cars, we'd nearly had the park to ourselves.  We enjoyed the time very much.  It also left us feeling like we needed to come back when it was warmer; have that picnic, or maybe even go camping for a day or two.  Maybe even bring the bikes back and try one or two of the trails that were all covered with snow this time.  That could be a fun time.  But today, it was a good drive, that was all we were looking for.  But it was everything we were looking for.

Comfortable Accessories

The youngest of my eight children is nearing thirty year old. Years ago, when most of my children were learning to drive, we lived in a rural community.  That meant driving a lot of country roads.  Where we worked, where we shopped, where we went to church, they were all 25-30 miles away.  Even where the kids went to school was seven miles away, all mostly on country roads.  And country roads mean more deer.  Yes, we were unable to avoid deer incidents, incidents which occasionally required the services of a collision repair shop. Between that and my children learning to drive, we had our cars in the shop to repair dents and crumpled fenders on several occasions.  We always went to the same shop and always, they would give us a complimentary key ring ornament, which, of course, had the logo of their national affiliation it.  Good advertising, I guess.  Anyway, I saved them and, as one would wear out and break, I would replace it with another. However, we eventually moved into a larger town so our shopping, working, and church going didn't involve so may miles of country roads.  The  kids all got better at driving and we didn't end up at the repair shop near as often; my supply of key tags began to dwindle. But for years I had one of those tags hanging on my key ring.  Well, these many years later, what I thought was the last one finally broke,

It made me sad. I had one of these tags hanging on my key ring for so long I wasn't sure I could recognize the keys as mine without the tag.  Yet there it was, broken.

I spent a few days doing without and then decided to look in my jewelry box, where I had kept all these tags for all these years, just in case there might be one more.

Guess what I found!  Callooh! Callay! One more tag!  Yes, there was another, one more!  Of course, I put it on right away and all was right with the world again.  My pocket felt normal again.  It was a good day.

Sewing with Grandkids

Bombeere has always enjoyed sewing and most recently has had fun sewing non-clothing items, stuff like quilts, table runners, pillows, and other things that are not clothes.  When I first met her she sewed mostly clothes. In fact, I still have the first shirt she ever sewed for me. But, over the years, she has branched out into other stuff. When there's time, much of her Christmas giving consists of things she's sewn. 

In recent years, as grandkids have seen her sewing, or received things she has sewn for them as gifts, some of them have expressed an interest in learning to sew, much to the delight of their grandmother.  She has only too happy to spend time with them helping them sew something of their choice.  So she's helped one sew doll clothes.  Another time she helped one of the other girls make a toy she then gave to her brother, a "Blobby".  There have been other sewing lessons, each time she lets the student pick the project and colors.  She helps them pick the fabric for whatever project they select.  Sometimes it means a trip to the store to pick the fabric, other times the fabric comes from her own stash or their mother's stash.  In any case, it's always fun to spend the time sewing and learning.  It also provides time to talk, which in my own opinion, is one of the better benefits of the projects.

One wanted to do a small blanket.

A little later she wanted to make a matching zipper pouch.  Those both turned out well.

Another time, with one of the other kids, there was a pillow.

The pillow turned out quite well, she entered it in the county fair and got a ribbon for it.  It was fun.

The creator of the blob did a different project another time.   

This time she made a snake.  This one likes to think outside the box.  The snake was her own design.  Like the blob, she described what she wanted to her grandmother and then the two of them made it happen.  She was quite pleased with the results.

This one saw his sister having so much fun and wanted to get in on it.  He also did a pouch.

His design was a little different from his sisters' but it turned out quite well.  He has since done a number of other sewing projects with his mother.

Even a younger granddaughter wanted to get in on it.  She needed a little more help than the older girls but she was still very pleased with the blankie she made for her doll.

I was surprised that this one wanted to sew.  This kid is so active and lively, he's usually moving.  I was surprised that he wanted to do something that required sitting still long enough to put something together.  Like the others, Grandma let him pick his colors and design.  He made his choice from Grandma's stash; his basic design was Pokémon. He showed amazing concentration as he sewed the pillow top together.  It was a big enough project that it took two sessions of sewing.

But he stuck with it and ended up with a very nice pillow.  He was quite pleased with it.

Each time, the grandchild ends up with a nice something of their own choosing, something that they designed and made with their grandmothers, and some one-on-one time with their grandmothers.  I personally see a lot of value in that; both the grandchild and the grandmother enjoy it. Some happy memories.  That's worth a lot.

Picture Perfect

Back in early December we had Schwarzebeere's kids for an evening.  Brombeere had decided earlier that we were going to give Schwarzebeere a picture of his kids for Christmas and that evening, when we had the kids, was our opportunity to get the picture.  So we stood them up in front of our Christmas tree for pictures.  Now, those who have kids had have ever tried to get pictures of small children will understand that the process of getting good pictures did not go smoothly.  If you're a Calvin and Hobbs fan and have followed that little imp over the years it was in publication, you will understand what I mean.

We wanted one of all three and another of each one individually. The individual shots went well enough.

But getting all three to cooperate all together proved very difficult.  It seemed like each time we'd have two of them smiling good, the third one wouldn't.

Someone wasn't getting what they wanted, wasn't getting their way, wasn't happy for one reason or another.  IT wasn't always the same one, they took turns being uncooperative and pouty.  It was getting very frustrating.  Brombeere tried all kinds of stuff to get them to cooperate and just smile all together.  But some 30 minutes and 58 pictures later we had some that we thought might work.

They actually are cute little kids ...

... sweet and kind ...

... and very endearing. 

And while the one of all three of them wasn't show-window perfect, it was good and very representative of who they are.  So we decided to go with it.

At the Feet of Prophets

 When I was growing up I lived about 20 miles from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Twice a year General Conference would be held in the tabernacle on Temple Square but my family typically watched it on TV; all the sessions were available on one of the regular channels and we could just watch it from the comfort of our home.  If I remember correctly, I only attended conference in the tabernacle two or three times, the last time being my freshmen year of college when I took a friend who had never been to conference in person.  The crowds were large and the seats were not particularly comfortable; unpadded, wooden pews.  Besides, there were a lot of people who traveled a lot farther than I would have had to to be able to attend at the tabernacle.

In 2000 the church finished construction and began using the new Conference Center, just north across the street from the Tabernacle.  It can seat 21,000 people whereas the tabernacle could only seat 3,500 and the seats are padded.  It also has no pillars, nothing blocking anyone's view from anywhere in the auditorium.  A much nicer space.

But at the time it was completed, we were living out of state and our ability to get there was limited.  When we're out visiting family we often visited Temple Square. A few years ago, while we were out there, we even toured the conference center but that was the closest we ever came to being there. There was one year, when I took one of my kids out and handed her off to her aunt, Brombeere's sister.  Brombeere's brother was there for the hand-off and offered me a ticket to a session, since it was right at the right time of year, but I turned him down; I was there alone and wanted to spend the limited time I had with family so I didn't go. So, yeah, the Conference Center is over 20 years old and we've never attended a session of conference in it.

We've wanted to attend conference in the new conference center but it just never worked out, mostly because of the timing, which was limited by the cost of getting there.  Until this year.  This year we decided to go and it happen to coincide with when conference is held.  So we looked into getting tickets so we could go.  Normally you get tickets from your local stake so we checked with our stake and found the seating options were pretty limited.  We had talked to our family living in the area and decided who might be able to attend with us so we needed a big block of tickets but what our stake had available wouldn't accommodate everybody.  Fortunately, Moosbeere was able to get a big enough block of tickets from his stake.  

Having never been before we had no idea what to expect as far as getting there, dealing with traffic and parking, and getting into the building and to our seats. But all that happened with no complications or great difficulty, it went much better than I expected.  We ended up in our seats with about 15 minutes to wait before it started.

Because it has not been that long since all the covid restrictions have been lifted, and because the church is pretty conservative about such things, attendance had been limited so the auditorium wasn't full to capacity, but there were still a lot of people there.  But in the section we were sitting we had a big choice of where to sit. It was nice.  Our view of the pulpit was pretty distant, but they had big monitors on the walls so you could still see the speakers just fine, as well as from at home watching on TV.

It was nice to have been able to attend in person.  It was a new experience and much more comfortable than it had been in the old tabernacle.  I'm glad we went.  And I'd be willing to give it another go if we happened to be there at conference time again, even if they were seating to full capacity.  They handled the crowd very well.  It was a good day.